"DRIVERS LICENSE" BLEW UP so quickly it rocketed Olivia Rodrigo out of a starring role in Disney+'s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and into the rare air of chart-topping singer-songwriter on the first attempt. This doesn't usually happen. Graduating from the junior division takes years of fine-tuning. A No. 1 single eluded Miley Cyrus prior to "Wrecking Ball, Selena Gomez got there a decade into her career with "Lose You to Love Me," and Ariana Grande wouldn't take the crown until "Thank U, Next." The ubiquity of Rodrigo's 2021 debut album, Sour, is a uniquely 2020s phenomenon: a byproduct of the power of social media to spread trends like aerosols and a classic case of music connecting with the public off the strength of its unvarnished emotion. With TikTok as the accelerant, "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U" drifted across demographics, and what hooked people was their agonizing honesty, righteous rage, and convincing delivery. Having grown up on Taylor Swift, Rodrigo used her upper register like a weapon the same way "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" drilled its point into your head. Sour offered massive hooks and dynamic tension-the frustration released in the choruses of "Good" and "Brutal," the patient crescendos and bridges in "License" and "Deja Vu"-that suggested even greater depth on the horizon.
This story is from the September 11 - 24, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 11 - 24, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
